Cyprus talks back on track, Tsipras-Erdogan meeting not ruled out

The Prime Minister’s Office said the government has not ruled out a bilateral meeting between Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the January 12 multiparty summit concerning Cyprus that Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci agreed on late Thursday night.

The rival Cypriot leaders agreed to resume talks over a dinner hosted by the United Nations in the buffer zone dividing the war-torn island.

It was the first face-to-face meeting between Anastasiades and Akinci since reunification talks broke down in Swtizerland last month.

According to the road map they agreed on, both leaders will pick up where they left off and will meet in Geneva on January 9.

Before that time, they said they will instruct their negotiators to continue meetings in a bid to make progress on the outstanding issues.

On January 11, both leaders will present maps with their proposals for their respective borders within a future federation.

In a statement, the UN said that “from January 12, a conference on Cyprus will be convened with the added participation of the guarantor powers [Greece, Turkey and Britain].”

“Other relevant parties shall be invited as needed,” the statement added.

Meanwhile on Friday the UN’s Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide held back-to-back meetings with Tsipras and Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and discussed the question of guarantees and security which will form the focus of the summit on January 12.